CVE-2026-99160

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's ring buffer subsystem. A local user can exploit this vulnerability to cause a Denial of Service (DoS) by crashing the kernel. The issue occurs when reading ring buffer metadata files for a central processing unit (CPU) that has never come online, resulting in a null pointer dereference.

This vulnerability is rated as Moderate impact because triggering it requires local access to the kernel tracing filesystem and results only in a system crash without permitting data disclosure or privilege escalation. In default Red Hat Enterprise Linux deployments, access to the tracefs hierarchy is restricted to privileged accounts, significantly limiting exposure to unprivileged users. Additionally, the issue only affects systems configured with possible CPU capacities where specific cores have never been brought online.

The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.